Gekiha Dan – Episode 12

Well that was an interesting diversion, we really got held up a WHOLE EPISODE by…

6 Blue Spirits.

Don’t ya love filler episodes? At least we got to see… what, ONE new card get used?

Ah I’ll quit my bitchin’ I’m just itching to get to the GOOD battles!

It’s Episode 12 but no episode title yet, we’re back on the Violet!

And we’re heading towards a very ominous looking tower.

Do I smell boss battle?

I’m feeling a boss battle.

It’s called that because its viewable from the Horizon and seems to Ladder up to the Heavens.

It’s a surprisingly cool name for something that’s basically got no other description other than being a tall-ass tower.

Something we’re all clueless about, Magisa questions why the Otherworld King wanted to create this thing in the first place.

If he wanted Fortresses he HAS those, why is this necessary to exist?

A bit of dramatic irony there. We’re aware that not everyone thinks that Yuuki is the Otherworld King, Belga seemed to be completely unaware of this fact, and the King who was dethroned by Yuuki later claimed that Otherworld King had “Given” Walhalance to Yuuki, suggesting they’re different people.

That being said, Kazan and Magical Crown appear to take orders from Yuuki, and act in the name of Otherworld King, suggesting he MIGHT be.

And of course, our main cast seems to believe that Yuuki is the Otherworld King based on his previous claim of omnipotence in this world.

Magisa notices the Red block of energy that Yuuki is holding and begins to move.

Dang, washed up magic is still hella convenient isn’t it?

Instant-clothing change!

Though this begs the question: Why does she need the clothes? They’re more likely to make Magisa’s bike significantly harder to ride than the clothes she was wearing before.

Magisa orders Dan and the others to focus on the rescue of Zungurii’s family.

Holy shit, Magisa’s riding up the Horizon Ladder!

Looks like Mai now has the job of being the outlook for the group.

I love the expressions of everyone here, Dan, Zungurii and Clackey are like “AYO WHAT THE FUCK” while Mai’s all “Yass Queen! Slay!”

Notably, the Horizon Ladder is still in construction, the Gurii tribe members appear to have been rounded up to work as slaves to construct it, Egyptian Pyramid style.

And knowing SOME construction rules, they’ve gone with Hexagons for their construction pieces.

Because Hexagons are the Bestagons.

No I’m serious, they are, here’s a CGP Grey video about it:

Also the theme currently playing appears to be the theme’s running “Action Girl” theme, but it isn’t a listed song in the OST, much like Yuuki’s theme that appears to come up so often.

Ah, no featured card? Instead we have “Awaken! Crimson Dragon Deck!” as our Episode title.

This really is going to be a boss battle.

HEXAGONS, ARE THE BESTAGONS

That aside I really do like the design of the Horizon ladders, just kind of wish they were utilized more as the fortresses they were rather than just being giant immovable MacGuffins.

I don’t need to explain to a 21st-century audience that slavery is bad right?

Especially because sad shit like this happens, poor guy is tuckered the hiffle out from working all day without a break.

Nonburii? That’s one of Zungurii’s relatives!

His words suggest spirit, but his eyes say “bed time”

Yeah, this type of work requires both freedom of movement and hand-eye co-ordination, which means the only way to subdue the populace is with shock collars.

But if the Otherworld King is so gosh darn powerful, why the hell isn’t he just paying these people for their work? I mean come on it can’t be THAT hard to find a group of people in a wasteland looking for pay and are willing to build a huge ass tower

Oh so the Violet can’t crash through a fucking Stone Gate but it’s perfectly capable of ripping through the Hexagon-Patterned wall of a fucking Horizon Ladder?

This show…

You know you’re a fucking minion when it doesn’t even take the protagonists to take you out of the running, the debris produced by their entrance just knocks you the fuck out.

Clackey’s interested in the layout of this place, but look at MAI

she’s like “YO MY READERS ARE GONNA FUCKIN’ LOVE WHEN I POST ABOUT TOPPLING THE OTHERWORLD KING’S GOVERNMENT!”

Critical research failure has occurred here. Our protagonists do not no they are collared.

Yeeep, if Kazan was with Yuuki during the Castle Invasions, now that Yuuki’s back, Kazan’s not likely to be far.

Your ace card is a Cost 3, you are many things, but ready for round 2 of Dan’s foot up yo ass is not one of them.

Looks like near the top of this Horizon Ladder is this weird thing.

The last Horizon Ladder?

For you watching at home, that means there’s more than just one of them, and they’ve already finished them.

Winning here definitely isn’t gonna be the end.

Now if only we knew what that Dream was or how this Horizon Ladder will somehow achieve it.

Nope, you’ve been interrupted by the Magisa patrol, starring Magisa.

You ain’t ready for… uh…

Washed up magic.

Also seems like the item Yuuki is carrying IS a Core.

If we didn’t have some inkling that Yuuki wasn’t Otherworld King, we’d probably call this a match of “Otherworld King vs Otherworld Witch”

Man, Kazan, Dan clapped your cheeks just because he happened to be in the same area when you were trying to pick up slaves

You think he wouldn’t come back for the rest of them after figuring out this wasn’t your first rodeo?

Villain_asks_obvious_question.jpg

Oh, there’s Mimi Tribe members here as well… I don’t see any Males among them, the Male populace should have been taken by the Otherworld King over to here though.

“We can commit any taboos we want as long as the end result is that the human race survives”

Mate the Human race will be here tomorrow if I take a shit on your desk, does that mean I’m obligated to do so?

If the choice is become a group of creatures that justify and commit abhorrences for the sake of our own collective survival or embrace good morality and die then perhaps we as a species should not exist.

Because if we DO survive and we’re willing to commit atrocities to ensure we survive, that means that literally anything that isn’t humanity is in literal danger.

From us.

Also before someone asks the question, no I’m not Vegan, and no, I don’t see non-Veganism as a hypocrisy. All life, besides SOME PLANTS (not all) persist in Life by consuming other Life, be it plant, animal, or otherwise. And even Photosynthesizing Plants persist off our Sun literally burning itself to death.

You can’t compare this to consumption because to be anti-consumption is to suggest that all life should not exist at all.

The lads here have zero clue what Kazan’s on about.

And now the important detail here, which makes Grand-Lolo incredibly strange.

Kazan is from the future.

Basically in Kazan’s era, the current state of the earth is uninhabitable due to excessive pollution, and despite the progression of science, they’ve concluded it’s impossible to restore, as a result, they’re trying to use the Horizon Ladders to move the entirety of Humanity to Grand-Lolo.

Yes, I don’t get it either, Grand-Lolo appears to be on it’s own time axis relative to everything else if Kazan from the future, and Dan from the present can both arrive at the same place.

It’s not particularly well explained HOW you came from the future either, or what time-axis Grand-Lolo is locked to.

So my guess is that the Horizon Ladder combined with the Otherworld King’s power will generate enough juice to transport Humanity to Grand-Lolo.

Assuming that the 6 continents are divided by colour, it seems like these “Grand Cores” are like Cores but bigger.

And for some reason the Continents need them.

The “Core” system appears to be how most of these ships are powered, Core is used to generate power in the ships.

How the Tower and the Grand Core affect that is beyond me, but we know that they can, apparently. I’d complain about “Tell don’t show” but they’re not “telling” us anything meaningful

What the fuck is Mother Core-

I’m kidding, I think we learned about this right at the start, it’s basically Grand-Lolo’s Sun.

Ah I think the subs were a bit literal but I think I have a gist of what’s going on.

So! We need a crapton of power, what has that power? Mother Core, big-ass sun in the sky.

How do we use it? Well we need the 6 Core Lightbearers.

Otherworld King is a giant douchenozzle and is unlikely to receive help from them as they’re all somewhat altruistic in some way.

So he needed a substitute, a giant fuck-off tower in the middle of god-damn nowhere with a relevant Grand Core slotted into the power grid in order to get basically a pseudo lightbearer.

Also it looks like Yuuki wasn’t in the White World at all, he was in the Red World the entire time and was just messing with Castles I guess.

Hah.

I’ve watched this before so I somewhat know certain things.

But the way the Blue World is depicted here is nothing like it’s actually presented when it’s visited.

Seems I got the gist right before I got here, pretty good even if I was only reciting between memory and currently received information.

It’s basically like a Dyson Sphere with extra steps, once the Horizon Ladders are all ready they can just draw energy straight from the bloody thing.

also did I say extra steps? I think a Dyson Sphere would actually require SIGNIFICANTLY more steps than just “build 6 towers and stick a giant shiny brick in them”

Clackey asking the real simple and important questions.

And this is where you take your hand, ball it up into a fist, and ensure it is placed on Kazan’s face with as much force as you can muster.

Basically neither Humans nor Otherworlders can occupy the same space, if the Humans don’t cross over they’ll eventually die, but if the Humans populate Otherworld, they’ll cull the Otherworlders to make room.

Both suck, difference is one race gets fucked by their own mistakes and the other gets fucked by someone else’s mistakes.

Easy choice.

Yes, it’s inconveniencing others for one’s own cowardice.

Dan’s veeeeery not happy with the Momose Siblings at this particular moment in time.

A person’s opinion doesn’t cease to be valid just because you’re knee-deep in a sunk-cost fallacy mate.

Zungurii begins an impassioned speech about how Dan’s gonna kick there asses and save the world.

Maybe I’ve got this the wrong way, maybe these are the males of the Mimi Tribe and every member of that tribe is equally as effeminate?

That would make sense in a way, there’s no reason to think that biologically, Otherworlders would be the same as humans.

I mean there’s a Yellow Womanizer and a Purple Blogger here who are equally as strong as Dan is.

Dan receives some encouragement from Clackey, since there are Women here, Clackey feels more obligated to help the many Women down here than to take down the big boss.

Mai on the other hand bails the hell out, she ain’t about having a war.

So key thing to note here, Viole Mai won’t do the morally correct thing if it inconveniences herself.

She will however, die for clout.

Kazan’s a Military-trained, grown-ass guy built fairly well, and he just got dropped by a 13-year old girl in thigh-highs and a skirt.

I guess when you’re prone to dealing with the creepiest fans on and off the earth, you learn a few self-defense tricks…

Clackey wants to protect the women and Mai wants to leave a big enough impression that they make a movie starring her about it, so she orders Dan to basically go deal with the big-fry

Off he goes.

Oh shit she’s taking on a fighting pose.

At least Clackey seems quite aware of the sheer strength and skill required to do what Mai just did.

Apparently Card Games have just taken a backfoot for good ol’ fashioned violence.

Did he just… blow wind at her?

Did she just fail to block wind?

Lady you just got repelled by a gust of wind.

I know Umbrellas who could take that better than you just did.

…Firing a whole LASER out of your FOOT is certainly an interesting trick.

Apparently the Battlefield Barrier is a common and simple spell anyone can use.

Seems Yuuki finds the information that Magisa’s magic is washed out interesting.

He just did the same thing YOU did. Fire up a Barrier.

Waddya mean that’s “Powerful” Magic!?

It was a GUST OF WIND, and the SAME THING YOU JUST DID.

He just didn’t fail!

And the cat’s out of the bag.

Yuuki finally clarifies the misunderstanding, he is not Otherworld King.

An Errand soldier that seems to be handling the Otherworld Witch without much problems while all the others downstairs are getting clowned on by a Girl that’s barely hit puberty.

Well this is a precarious situation.

See if this was a card game you wouldn’t be facing an almost assuredly fatal drop right about now.

Oh he got up there fast, Ladder musn’t be THAT tall.

At least Magisa isn’t gonna drop.

Yeah? Who else was gonna play Red in his stead?

I don’t think I’ve seen a single other Red player so far besides Dan.

This question has been explained several times and all these schmucks keep FUCKING ASKING IT!

THEY’RE MOVING THE HUMANS OVER!

COME ON!

I see Yuuki and I have a matching wavelength.

Erm, if Dan’s power is comparable to Otherworld King’s.

Does that mean you’re ALSO on Otherworld King’s level, Yuuki?

I guess you’d have to be, given that you’ve been confused for Otherworld King one too many times now.

…For what incentive?

Come on Yuuki you aren’t dumb, Dan’s literally here to rescue your prisoners, at least TRY to make the offer seem enticing.

Dan is understandably quite pissed at the lack of tact at such a question. It was an incredibly pointless statement.

Your deck has gained exactly ONE Siegfried since you last played, I don’t think you’ve got all the answers for Yuuki at this point in time.

Kajitsu considers Dan pitiful, as his rage against Yuuki is very easily exploited, and would be a simple matter to turn against Dan.

I’m sorry he was just commended for having exceptionally remarkable ability and now him being the Red Soldier is a “miscalculation?”

I don’t remember getting a pamphlet of criteria to bear the Core’s Light.

Yuuki’s going to focus on trying to activate the Horizon Ladder, the matter of Dan is now left for Kajitsu to deal with.

Dan has lost to both of the Momoses before this point, so either is a pretty bad match up for him right now either way.

Oh, that’s weird, the Battlefield entry theme is playing as this happens but it seems like Kajitsu can force her opponents into the Battlefield.

Ay, we get to see Kajitsu’s Battle Form for the first time, well, besides the previous eyecatches where she was depicted with it.

Dan notes that he won’t just leave it at that, even if he loses.

I see Dan’s realized this goes beyond just card games.

His mood perks up once his head is in the game though, he finally gets his rematch after getting his butt thoroughly wrecked by Kajitsu.

Kajitsu compliments Dan for his committing her name to memory.

For those not familiar with Japanese culture and are wondering why Dan is using Kajitsu’s full name, you often never refer to a person by their given name, you always use their family name.

The only reason you ever reference their given name is if you’re either on a first-name basis, which only occurs if you’re related, or otherwise incredibly close. Of course, Dan can’t just use “Momose” because both Kajitsu and Yuuki share that surname, the only recourse for him to refer to them is to use their full name, hence his usage of “Momose Kajitsu”

The show has obviously written Dan of course to be happy with “Dan” because otherwise they would have to call him “Bashin” which would make him too similar to the previous series’ main characters.

But for more examples, Clackey Ray goes by “Clackey”, his family name, Viole Mai is referred to by “Viole-san” by Serge, Zungurii uses “Mai” because Zungurii isn’t Japanese.

Anyway the reason im explaining all that is because there’s this, Kajitsu outright requests that her first name be used in place of even her full name.

I tried to come up with some reasons as to why, such as maybe having an issue with her surname but there’s no indication that such a thing is true.

Yes, Lets! Card Games are fun!

Of course we cut away for some MORE PLOT just before we move on.

I hope they don’t use this as an opportunity to skip turns, or I’ll be very upset.

You’ve got weapons, fucking use them!

Fully grown adults getting memed on by a 13-year old.

And a 15 year old, apparently!

I will say you can feel the fire in Clackey’s eyes there. I like that look on his face.

Serge is also cleaning up quite nicely, but at least in his case there’s actually a lore-reason for why the humans are so outmatched compared to him.

Serge just casually threatening to kill each guard that doesn’t free their prisoners.

Despite trying to be clever and avoid yielding knowledge that could help Serge, his eyes betray him.

This self-betrayal brings Serge to the conclusion that the guards are not able to release the prisoners, the method to do so being located a fair bit higher up.

Serge just fucking disrespected that guy, holy shit.

Mai begins to aim for the central control system for the Prisoner’s shock collars but it appears reinforcements have arrived from elsewhere in the Horizon Ladder.

This place ain’t small so I can see why it’d take some time for more of them to show up.

Up the stairs they go.

Also props to this show, Mai is certainly wearing a rather unforgiving outfit when it comes to certain positions but the show makes no attempt to capitalize or even reference this fact, and is quite modest when animating her even in highly flexible moments where it would make anatomical sense.

…I suppose not lewding the 13-year old is not really worthy of praise but at time of writing you can’t turn left without finding an anime doing something really sketchy.

And besides, we should really get into the habit of praising patterns we want done consistently, that’s just basic positive reinforcement.

To be fair we haven’t actually seen Zungurii do anything in this sea of battle, but I suppose the show might have wanted to avoid any depictions of violence against children.

In this case though, Zungurii would fucking snap half the soldiers in half.

Okay, we’re back to the battle, and we don’t seem to have skipped any turns so that’s good.

Also that sky is… looking a little dark.

Kajitsu deploys an incredibly powerful Nexus, The Fruit of Wise Tree for her opening move, let’s talk about it.

A Cost 4 Green Nexus from BS06. It needs 3 core to become level 2.

It doesn’t have a lot of text, but this card is actually incredibly strong.

As a Cost 4 it can be played on the first move.

Additionally, It LITERALLY has BS01’s The Fruit of Life’s 3 core Lv2 effect as a 0 investment Lv1 effect!

The first effect basically doubles the amount of core you gain when life is lost, improving “No guard” strategies that rely on losing lives to accumulate core. Which is exceptionally good because you’re not likely playing spirits the turn you use this.

With this, you gain core absurdly quickly, and if you don’t, it’s usually because your opponent hasn’t attacked you, which isn’t particularly useful if they want to win. The Nexus was SO good it was not rare to just see decks off-colouring into it just to gain the Extra core, the symbol being wrong basically didn’t matter because it would make up for it’s inability to reduce cost with the amount of core it generated.

This is why the Lv2 requires 3 core, because you will often have the spare core required to use it anyway… And that Lv2 effect is the Lv2 effect of The Hermit Wise Tree from BS01, Refreshing all your exhausted Spirits during your End Step.

That’s right, this Nexus is walking power creep, a combination of the 2 best effects from 2 otherwise individually useful Nexuses. Having one of the higher level effects of one of them as a first level effect!

This card is just crazy, I dunno what to tell you.

I believe this might be the show’s first use of a Nexus as well, showing excellent improvement in the animation, now when a Nexus is used, the Battlefield will change to display the Nexus’ appearance.

A much-loved improvement from the days of Toppa.

It’s Dan’s turn, but he’s already in a pickle.

Dan’s an aggressive player, if he can attack without worry, he will, this Nexus poses a bit of a problem though because it actively rewards Kajitsu for losing lives.

It’s possible Dan doesn’t recognize the Nexus however, he’s routinely been unfamiliar with cards originating from BS06 that aren’t actively in his deck. For example: Block-Golem.

Dan goes tall, and plays a Cost 4 Balmung for his opening move, instantly moving to his attack step.

Also if you’re unfamiliar with Card Game terminology, “Going Tall” and “Going Wide” are terms that, while originating from Magic: The Gathering, are applicable to any TCG game with a resource and cost system for their bodies. To “Go Wide” is to try and expand your numbers, using individually cheap cards to produce more forces than the opponent can deal with, To “Go Tall” is to rely on few but powerful creatures.

In simpler terms, “Go Wide” is quantity, and “Go Tall” is quality.

Dan here has spent a crapton to play Balmung rather than flooding his board, he’s confirmed his opponent is using Green cards so the likelihood he will suffer due to Purple interruption is low.

Balmung attacks, snatching a life from Kajitsu.

The Fruit of Wise Tree activates, visually dropping a glowing fruit from one of it’s branches.

Since Kajitsu lost a life, she gains an additional core from the void.

Dan’s exhausted all his Core and actions, so his turn ends.

Meanwhile, back at the fight Magisa is having with Yuuki.

She’s uh… firing a hell of a lot of powerful blasts.

Given a Laser didn’t work on his barrier I don’t think that’s going to do much.

It does explode though, I guess that is more effective.

Except the problem with explosions is that due to the sheer amount of waste product released, it’s impossible to tell whether you’ve done any damage until the smoke clears.

Cool guys don’t look at explosions.

Cooler guys don’t get hurt by them.

Yuuki’s been clowning on your ass with Wind, I don’t even think he’s been trying.

People do like to tell their enemies that they can’t be beaten a lot don’t they?

It’s a bit of a pointless gesture, if it was true that they could stop you, you wouldn’t exactly share that information with them, especially if they were trying to get in the way of what you want.

Oh that’s cool, the Staff is glowing with the colour of magic she’s using.

Red didn’t really work, so now she’s giving Blue magic a go.

This is going well isn’t it? She hasn’t cracked that barrier once.

It’s Kajitsu’s turn, and she’s lost a life, while that would normally give her 6 core to work with, her Nexus has generated a core, so she actually has 7.

This is normally not too big a deficit, green have many first turn plays that can produce a Core from somewhere.

It’s when it starts accumulating that it becomes a bit scary.

Kajitsu opens with Machfly, and we start to hear the tune of Yuuki’s Battle theme.

Kajitsu then deploys a second Fruit of Wise Tree.

Now she’ll triple the amount of core she gains when she loses a life!

The annoying part about this is that there’s no necessity to stack the Lv2 effect because it refreshes all your exhausted spirits, so she only ever needs to level up one of them even though she’s generating even more core than she was with only one.

Machfly attacks, Dan has no blockers so he has to take a life.

Score is now 4-4, problem is them being even in lives doesn’t necessarily mean Dan is equal in resources now.

This strategy has a foreseeable downside from a design perspective.

So what if you can play all the cards in your hand?

That just means if your opponent CAN cope, you have an empty hand.

…Though this is why Red and Green are a very good mixed choice.

He’s insane!

Kajitsu’s set up a board ready to ruin you with numbers and you’re out here paying 5 cost for a Siegfried!?

Well that’s dangerous.

Kajitsu has 3 cards in her hand, she’ll have 4 next turn.
Dan has 4 lives.
Kajitsu cannot block and has 1 Spirit on her board.
With a Core-generating Nexus, if she has 4 Spirits in hand, Dan straight up loses the game.

That being said Kajitsu had 7 core available, spent 2 on Machfly and 2 on a Wise Tree Nexus, leaving 3 core available to spend with 3 Green symbols.

From this, it’s unlikely that Kajitsu has many cheap spirits available in hand, or straight up has Magic responses which would reduce the likelihood of Dan losing from this attack.

Could be a bluff though.

Naturally, Kajitsu takes from the Life.

Thanks to Kajitsu’s nexuses, she gains 2 more core from the Void in addition to the life she just lost.

My man she has 2 nexuses that give her a core when she loses a life.

You do know how to count right?

Dan’s only now clicked that the effect stacks.

Despite having the effect explained to him by Kajitsu earlier.

It’s Kajitsu’s turn again, her trees have generated 3 core so far, it’s turn 5 so 2 core steps, and she’s lost 2 lives.

Lady is working with 11 core this turn.

Also Yuuki’s Battle theme is still playing, normally it’s quite short lived, but I’m here for it, it’s so good.

I just wish I had like a youtube vid of it so I could listen to it outside of this show.

Kajitsu adds to her numbers, this time Amenborg at Lv2.

Amenborg doesn’t do a lot, being a Cost 2 Swift Spirit, but since it can come in for low cost at up to 4000 BP I imagine that’s quite potent when compared to MachG who can only hit 2000 BP.

Dan’s comment seems odd here, especially since Swift is only effective when the card exists in your hand during flash timing, Kajitsu has played it during a Main Step.

But Dan’s probably noting it’s existence because it means Kajitsu is using Swift Spirits in her deck, it’s more for him to consider.

Machfly’s brought up to Level 3.

Dan prepares himself for an onslaught, but Kajitsu instead ends her turn.

Because Kajitsu needs to be safer now.

She’s working with a low number of spirits at the moment, that much is obvious.

Her early aggression was to invite attacks to generate Core from her Nexuses, now she only has 3 lives, she could get aggressive again, but she’d run the risk of losing next turn if you played 2 Spirits and she was unable to counter.

She’s playing it safe, besides, with a deck that intends to generate core, that also comes with it the understanding to not give you core.

Serge’s a house.

I was about to complain about the further interruption to my battle but it’s being interrupted by people beating the shit out of each other so I’ll let it slide.

Clackey’s energy levels are very low from climbing all these stairs.

Who’d have thought a place called the “Horizon Ladder” would be tall, ay?

Nothing quite invigorates Clackey like a raging boner, apparently.

It’s Dan’s turn!

Y’know I always wondered why the board lights up when the Start Step begins, it’s not like any part of the board vanishes when its the opposing turn.

Dan’s gonna need a bit more power to punch through a 6000 BP Machfly and a 4000 BP Amenborg.

And we’re following up with MORE big Dragons! Dan with his 5 unused core available pays 4 of it to play Siegwurm!

It’s been a while since we’ve seen this guy isn’t it actually?

The last time Dan played was against… I think it was Suzuri…

And he didn’t even use Siegwurm that game.

It certainly has been a hot minute, welcome back Siegwurm.

Dan’s three strongest spirits are all on the board.

I get that Balmung isn’t as impressive, being a Cost 4, but at least in Battle Spirits, if it has a “The” before it’s name begins, it implies some degree of uniqueness.

Naturally, Dan can’t crack Machfly just yet, his strongest Spirit is only Siegfried at Lv2.

Problem is maintaining all these huge boys is leaving Dan without much in the way of Core with which to use Magic.

Kajitsu’s turn, since she hasn’t gained any core last turn, she’s on 12 available, though only 4 of it is unaccounted for.

She uses 3 of the available core in her Reserve to level up The Fruit of Wise Tree to Lv2.

You’d think Dan never bloody saw a Nexus in his life, but we saw The Plateau of Duel in his deck in Episode 1 or 2 or something!

I’m… not quite sure what the point of that move was if she was just going to end her turn, Fruit of Wise Tree’s Lv2 effect refreshes her exhausted spirits on her end step, but if she doesn’t swing on the attack step it doesn’t do anything…

It’s not like she loses the core so…

What?

So she can either give you Core that won’t help her win? Or lose her Machfly to a crash with Siegfried?

How about no?

Your plays have been spending lots of core for big spirits which suggests a lack of small cards in hand, why would she want to help with that?

If Yuuki completes the Horizon Ladder before your game finishes, you lose.

If Kajitsu acquires enough core through her core steps to make her plays irregardless of her Wise Tree’s effect, you lose.

She’s in no particular rush. The outcome of this match doesn’t necessarily decide the fate of the Horizon Ladder.

In English, basically Kajitsu’s strategy requires an immense amount of Core.

It’d be a shame if Kajitsu’s deck benefitted from your haste, wouldn’t it?

The Momose Siblings clearly saw this coming.

Oh, that’s intriguing, up til now the Start Step Flashes have been an undiscernably Cyan colour, the color of Core.

But this time, Dan’s Start Step flash has turned red.

Infact even his Core have become Red.

Notably, it doesn’t matter what colour your Core is as long as it’s a distinguishable game piece that can be recognized as core.

Hell in Battle Spirits Saga there are “Core Cards” you can use in place of the tiny game pieces.

But at least narratively, the fact that the Core is shining the colour of the Light Dan bears is interesting.

Siegwurm is brought to Level 3, this means all Dan’s Awaken Spirits now gain Siegwurm’s ability to Clash.

The Dragons are ready.

In hindsight, Dan would really benefit from a DarkDragonEmperor Siegfried, it’d work quite nicely with his deck.

Hell he’s even shown using it in the opening, despite the fact that he’ll never use one.

Dan’s heating up.

Talk about eating your words there Kajitsu, you claimed Dan bearing the Red Core’s Light was a “miscalculation” and now Dan is shining with his light like a sun.

Magisa and Yuuki are still at a stalemate.

Only reason Yuuki’s not really able to proceed despite no-selling Magisa’s attacks is that he can’t protect himself AND perform the likely delicate procedure of inserting the Grand Core.

Needs to swat this fly before he can finish his task.

Dan’s Light is shining so brightly the Grand Core and Magisa’s staff are reacting.

Hm, Yuuki’s wording here suggests that simply bearing a Core’s Light and awakening as a Soldier of that Core’s Light are different things?

Time for Dan to crack Kajitsu’s defense, he attacks with Siegwurm.

Thanks to Clash, Kajitsu must block if she’s able to.

Amenborg blocks and gets wrecked.

At first this seems a little dangerous, Siegfried is only Level 2, meaning it will tie with Machfly.

Of course, this is ignoring the reason Siegfried even has Clash in the first place.

Siegfried gains Siegwurm’s Clash ability, Machfly will be forced to block.

Dan activates Siegfried’s Awaken, taking 3 core from Siegwurm to bring itself to Level 3.

Siegfried now has 10000 BP.

Siegfried crushes the 6000 BP Machfly between it’s teeth!

And then flings it but that’s one frame too many for me.

Dan… Kajitsu has 3 lives, a 1 symbol attack from Balmung isn’t going to do a thing.

Either way, Kajitsu takes a life from Balmung’s attack.

More Core for the Core Goddess.

Dan she’ll have 5 cards in her hand next turn, you have 4 lives.

You’re playing a dangerous game here if you don’t have any Magic.

Dan announces he’ll end the game on his next turn.

You’ve only just taken an advantage friendo.

Chill out.

The light from Dan’s Core Trooper, along with the red hue of Dan’s Core fades away.

Looks like whatever that was, it didn’t last long.

Kajitsu’s theme has started to play, it’s quite a nice soft piano.

Kajitsu’s depressed expression seems to mean that she doesn’t quite have enough Core for her Combo just yet.

Hoo boy, Dan’s vision just expanded a while.

This went from just saving Zungurii’s family to feeling a duty to repair the disorder this world has.

It seems like Dan’s hit home on something with his discussion of “Family”

Dan intends to square up with Yuuki after he finishes off Kajitsu.

Again, getting a bit ahead of yourself there Dan, but I suppose the spirit is commendable.

Well that’s not concerning at all.

Kajitsu’s eyes have blackened and now the Battlefield is rumbling.

This is the first sign of genuine concern we’ve seen on Yuuki’s face all series.

And it’s the look of “ohhhh… I fucked up.”

The whole Horizon Ladder is shaking.

and Kajitsu is in the BATTLEFIELD at this moment.

Hoo boy, whatever Kajitsu is doing it’s causing the Horizon Ladder to fall apart.

Falling Debris freaking smashes the bridge Clackey was trying to cross.

Well that isn’t good, Clackey’s lost his footing and there’s no way to stop himself sliding off this bridge.

And given they’re quite high up the Horizon Ladder, that’s a big drop.

The fuck are they supposed to do? That is an Ex-Bridge and they’re definitely not outrunning a sliding Clackey.

And even then it’s not like these muppets are going to let you, it’s in their best interests to ensure you die.

Kazan’s ready to get his ass beat again by Mai.

Back in the battlefield, there’s an ominous Green sky forming.

So the Magical Girl who can control butterflies is now crumbling an entire tower, forming strange maelstroms in the sky and calling herself poison.

I’ve seen beehives beaten with a stick more amicable than this lady.

It seems Dan’s “challenge” toward Yuuki has set off Kajitsu’s Berserk Button.

I’m not sure a “Big Brother Complex” quite captures the magnitude of what the fuck is going on here.

In Kajitsu’s rage, a gigantic spirit has manifested itself on her field.

And we won’t see what it is until next episode!

God it feels so good to be back in the plot. And we’re in the middle of a nice-ass boss battle.

I have zero complaints, this episode was really good.

Oh right! I guess I can use this time to correct a problem from last episode concerning Wing Boots.

So remember when I got fussed over the Japanese wording of this card? Well as it turns out my Japanese needs some work, “Ijo” in the way it’s being used here actually is a singular word the Japanese have for “Equal or more than”

The Word Battle Spirits uses when it demands that something must be higher is “Takai”, and for lower it’s “Hikui”

So it looks like the text wasn’t quite wrong, I was just limited in my ability to translate it, because “Ijo” doesn’t have a singular word translation in English.

Here’s to learning more Japanese!

Anyway! I’ll see you guys next time. We don’t really have a card of the day, and I already made my attempt at representing Dan’s deck earlier, so I guess we’ll leave it at that.

See ya next time!